“This new work leans more towards bodily functions,” says Rick.
There are pieces that look like specimen vases, for example.
“The parallels that can be drawn between clay and flesh, vessel and body, containment and spillage, have informed much of my work,” says Nadine in a description of the installation. “There is a troubling connection between beauty and the abject, the inner and the outer of our bodies, our vessels.
“Viewing the colour of fluids and finding beauty in the abject, seeing what ‘should not’ be seen, is made possible in the safe space of a gallery setting, where we can engage without disgust and/or fear.”
Rick says Nadine and her husband Dave, both originally from South Africa, run The Clay Centre in Auckland.
“They do classes, they have workshops and studios for people to rent and work there.”
Installation artists at Quartz provide their own display equipment, which makes for an interesting variety over the nine installations so far.
“They’ve all had a personality of their own,” says Rick. “And I want them to be different from what’s in the museum, which is why I don’t provide any display equipment.”
Nadine has used glass platforms for her work.
She was born in Vryheid, Natal, South Africa, in 1971 and moved to New Zealand at the age of 19. In 2003 she attended Duncan Shearer’s pottery classes at Selwyn Community Education and her obsession with clay began. In 2009 she began the Diploma in Ceramics at Auckland Studio Potters Centre. The following year Nadine started potting fulltime.
Nadine Spalter has been a finalist in the Portage Ceramic Awards, the Wallace Arts Awards, and numerous Fire and Clay exhibitions run by Auckland Studio Potters. Her work is held in the Wallace Arts Trust and the Suter Gallery collections.
